The importance of disturbance and forest structure to bird abundance in the Black Hills

The Condor ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A Matseur ◽  
Joshua J Millspaugh ◽  
Frank R Thompson ◽  
Brian E Dickerson ◽  
Mark A Rumble
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Black Hills ◽  
Ground Vegetation ◽  
Percent Cover ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Vegetation Characteristics ◽  
Percent Area ◽  
Landscape Level

Abstract Many North American birds associated with forest disturbances such as wildfire and mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks are declining in abundance. More information on relationships between avian abundance and forest structure and disturbance is needed to guide conservation and management. Our objective was to determine densities of American Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides dorsalis), Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis), Brown Creeper (Certhia americana), and White-winged Junco (Junco hyemalis aikeni) in relation to vegetation characteristics and disturbance at the point and landscape level in the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains of South Dakota and Wyoming. We conducted 3 point counts from late March to late June 2015 and 2016 at more than 2,300 locations distributed across a gradient of forest structure and disturbance types. We estimated densities using 3-level hierarchical time-removal models that simultaneously estimated abundance, availability, and detection probability. Black-backed Woodpeckers were positively related to percent area in 1- to 3-year-old wildfires and Brown Creepers were positively associated with percent area in 4- to 5-year-old wildfires; however, Red-breasted Nuthatches were negatively related to percent area in 3- to 5-year-old wildfires. With the exception of American Three-toed Woodpeckers, species were positively related to percent cover of beetle-killed trees. Brown Creepers, White-winged Juncos, and Red-breasted Nuthatches had mixed responses to percent overstory canopy cover. White-winged Juncos also had a positive association with percent ground vegetation at the point and landscape level. Brown Creepers were strongly linked with spruce vegetation type. American Three-toed Woodpeckers, which are thought to occupy spruce forest in the Black Hills, did not show a strong relationship with any covariates. Maintaining some areas of natural disturbances along with heterogeneity of vegetation characteristics within stands and at the landscape scale will benefit the needs of a diverse bird community in the Black Hills.

scholarly journals Abundance of Black-backed Woodpeckers and other birds in relation to disturbance and forest structure in the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains of South Dakota and Wyoming

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Elizabeth A. Matseur
Keyword(s):  
South Dakota ◽  
Detection Probability ◽  
Information Criterion ◽  
R Package ◽  
Black Hills ◽  
Percent Cover ◽  
Point Count ◽  
Dead Trees ◽  
Species Population ◽  
Percent Area

Black-backed Woodpeckers (Picoides arcticus) are rare residents of northern conifer forests and are almost always associated with disturbances, such as fire and beetle infestation. The Black Hills population of Black-backed Woodpeckers has been petitioned to be considered a Distinct Population Segment under the Endangered Species Act and more information on their population size in the region is needed. Our objective was to map abundance of Black-backed Woodpeckers in the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains of South Dakota and Wyoming and provide a population estimate for Black-backed Woodpeckers in the region. We located 124 and 115 transects, containing 1,232 and 1,138 sampling points, in 2015 and 2016, respectively. We conducted 5-minute point count surveys from late-March to late-June and visited each point three times to estimate detection probability. We characterized vegetation around each point using GIS derived landscape variables that included: percent cover of green trees, beetle killed trees, dead trees, and year since wildfire. We detected 362 Black-backed Woodpeckers across both years. We fit three-level hierarchical time-removal models that simultaneously estimated abundance, availability, and detection probability in R package "unmarked" using gmultmix and ranked models using Akaike Information Criterion. The global abundance model received the most support. Abundance was negatively related to percent cover of dead trees and green trees and a positively related to percent cover of beetle killed trees, and percent area of 1- to 2-, 3-, and 4- to 5-year-old wildfires. Abundance of Black-backed Woodpeckers varied the greatest across present cover of beetle killed trees and wildfires that had burned within the last five years. Mean density was 0.00528 birds/ha in 2015 and 0.00626 birds /ha in 2016. An estimated 2,920 (LCL: 1,449; UCL: 5,917) and 3,439 (LCL: 1,739; UCL: 6,908) individual Black-backed Woodpeckers, which is equivalent to 1,460 and 1,720 pairs of Black-backed Woodpeckers, in the Black Hills in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Our study is the most extensive survey of Blackbacked Woodpecker abundance in the region and sets the stage for future analyses of the species population viability in the region.

Landscape-level variation in forest structure and biogeochemistry across a substrate age gradient in Hawaii

Ecology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 90 (11) ◽  
pp. 3074-3086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Vitousek ◽  
Gregory P. Asner ◽  
Oliver A. Chadwick ◽  
Sara Hotchkiss
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Level Variation ◽  
Substrate Age ◽  
Substrate Age Gradient ◽  
Landscape Level

scholarly journals Exploring the contributions of vegetation and dune size to early dune development using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (23) ◽  
pp. 5533-5549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinka E. B. van Puijenbroek ◽  
Corjan Nolet ◽  
Alma V. de Groot ◽  
Juha M. Suomalainen ◽  
Michel J. P. M. Riksen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Grass Species ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Maximum Height ◽  
Vegetation Density ◽  
Vegetation Height ◽  
Erosion Processes ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Vegetation Characteristics

Abstract. Dune development along highly dynamic land–sea boundaries is the result of interaction between vegetation and dune size with sedimentation and erosion processes. Disentangling the contribution of vegetation characteristics from that of dune size would improve predictions of nebkha dune development under a changing climate, but has proven difficult due to the scarcity of spatially continuous monitoring data. This study explored the contributions of vegetation and dune size to dune development for locations differing in shelter from the sea. We monitored a natural nebkha dune field of 8 ha, along the coast of the island Texel, the Netherlands, for 1 year using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with camera. After constructing a digital surface model and orthomosaic we derived for each dune (1) vegetation characteristics (species composition, vegetation density, and maximum vegetation height), (2) dune size (dune volume, area, and maximum height), (3) degree of shelter (proximity to other nebkha dunes and the sheltering by the foredune). Changes in dune volume over summer and winter were related to vegetation, dune size and degree of shelter. We found that a positive change in dune volume (dune growth) was linearly related to initial dune volume over summer but not over winter. Big dunes accumulated more sand than small dunes due to their larger surface area. Exposed dunes increased more in volume (0.81 % per dune per week) than sheltered dunes (0.2 % per dune per week) over summer, while the opposite occurred over winter. Vegetation characteristics did not significantly affect dune growth in summer, but did significantly affect dune growth in winter. Over winter, dunes dominated by Ammophila arenaria, a grass species with high vegetation density throughout the year, increased more in volume than dunes dominated by Elytrigia juncea, a grass species with lower vegetation density (0.43 vs. 0.42 (m3 m−3) week−1). The effect of species was irrespective of dune size or distance to the sea. Our results show that dune growth in summer is mainly determined by dune size, whereas in winter dune growth was determined by vegetation type. In our study area the growth of exposed dunes was likely restricted by storm erosion, whereas growth of sheltered dunes was restricted by sand supply. Our results can be used to improve models predicting coastal dune development.

scholarly journals Soil respiration variation along an altitudinal gradient in Italian Alps: Disentangling forest structure and temperature effects

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aysan Badraghi ◽  
Maurizio Ventura ◽  
Andrea Polo ◽  
Luigimaria Borruso ◽  
Leonardo Montagnani
Keyword(s):  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Elevation Gradient ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Conifer Forest ◽  
C And N

AbstractTo understand the main determinants of soil respiration (SR), we investigated the changes of soil respiration and soil physicochemical properties, including soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), root C and N, litter C and N, soil bulk densities and soil pH at five forest sites, along an elevation/temperature gradient (404 to 2101 m a.s.l) in Northern Italy, where confounding factors such as aspect and soil parent material are minimized, but an ample variation in forest structure and composition is present. Our result indicated that SR rates increased with temperature in all sites, and about 55% - 76% of SR was explained by temperature. Annual cumulative SR, ranging between 0.65 and 1.40 kg C m-2 yr-1, declined along the elevation gradient, while temperature sensitivity (Q10) of SR increased with elevation. However, a high SR rate (1.27 kg C m-2 yr-1) and low Q10 were recorded in the old conifer forest stand at 1731 m a.s.l., characterized by a complex structure and high productivity, introducing nonlinearity in the relations with elevation and temperature. Reference SR at the temperature of 10°C (SRref) was not related to elevation. A significant linear negative relationship was found for bulk density with elevation. On the contrary, soil C, soil N, root C, root N, pH and litter mass were better fitted by nonlinear relations with elevation. However, it was not possible to confirm a significant correlation of SR with these parameters once the effect of temperature has been removed (SRref). These results show how the main factor affecting SR in forest ecosystems along this Alpine elevation gradient is temperature, but its regulating role can be strongly influenced by site biological characteristics, particularly vegetation type and structure. This study also confirms that high elevation sites are rich in C stored in the soil and also more sensitive to climate change, being prone to high carbon losses as CO2. Conversely, forest ecosystems with a complex structure, with high SRref and moderate Q10, can be more resilient.

scholarly journals Preliminary assessment of habitat characteristics of woodland caribou calving areas in the Claybelt region of Québec and Ontario, Canada

Rangifer ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Émilie Lantin ◽  
Pierre Drapeau ◽  
Marcel Paré ◽  
Yves Bergeron
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Rangifer Tarandus ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Percent Cover ◽  
Woodland Caribou ◽  
Vegetation Characteristics ◽  
Forest Cover Types

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) require a diversity of forested habitats over large areas and may thus be particularly affected by the large-scale changes in the composition and age-class distribution of forest landscapes induced by the northern expansion of forest management. In this study we examine habitat characteristics associated to the use of calving areas by woodland caribou females and calves at different spatial scales. Thirty females were captured and collared with Argos satellite transmitters that allowed to locate 14 calving areas. Field surveys were conducted at each of these areas to measure the landscape composition of forest cover types and local vegetation characteristics that are used for both forage conditions and protection cover. At the scale of the calving area, univariate comparisons of the amount of forest cover types between sites with and without calves showed that the presence of calves was associated to mature black spruce forest with a high percent cover of terrestrial lichens. Within calving grounds, univariate comparisons showed that vegetation features like ericaceans and terrestrial lichens, that are important food resources for lactating females, were more abundant in calving areas where females were seen with a calf in mid-July than in areas where females were seen alone. The protection of the vegetation cover against predators was however similar between calving areas with or with¬out a calf. Logistic regression results also indicated that vegetation characteristics associated to forage conditions were positively associated to calf presence on calving grounds. Our results suggest that foraging conditions should be given more attention in analyses on habitat requirements of woodland caribou.

scholarly journals Positive association between forest management, environmental change, and forest bird abundance

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Detlef Schulze ◽  
Dylan Craven ◽  
Andrew M. Durso ◽  
Jiri Reif ◽  
Marcus Guderle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Forest Bird

Birds in patches of old-growth ash forest, in a matrix of younger forest

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Loyn
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Patch Size ◽  
Forest Birds ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Forest Patches ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Generalized Linear Modelling ◽  
Mountain Ash ◽  
Context Variables

Birds were studied at 57 sites in Mountain Ash forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia in spring and summer 1995/96. The sites represented 41 patches of old-growth forest (up to 390 ha in size) in a matrix of regrowth mostly from severe fires in 1939 (57 years previously), with multiple sites in the four largest patches of old-growth and eight sites in 1939 regrowth. Relative bird abundance was assessed by an area-search technique. Generalized linear modelling was used to develop predictive models by regressing abundance of groups of bird species against patch size, isolation and some basic habitat and context variables. Total bird abundance (of all species combined) tended to be higher in old-growth patches than in 1939 regrowth, but not significantly. There was no trend in total abundance with patch size or isolation. Fruit-eating birds tended to be commonest in small patches. Bark-foragers and uncommon birds favoured large patches, though the latter were most common in 1939 regrowth. More variation was explained by habitat and context variables such as aspect, altitude and forest structure. Unevenaged forest structure was often associated with small patches. It was concluded that old-growth forest patches can have similar values per hectare for forest birds whether they are large or small. The regrowth forest matrix appears to protect small patches from factors which reduce densities of forest birds in small forest patches in farmland. The data support the current policy of retaining all old-growth ash forest patches. A range of factors should be considered in selecting regrowth stands of various sizes to regrow as old forest of the future, including their intrinsic potential to develop particular habitats and produce a mix of forest stuctures in the landscape.

Effects of an extensive wildfire on birds in far eastern Victoria

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Loyn
Keyword(s):  
Regional Scale ◽  
Ground Vegetation ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Mobile Species ◽  
Eucalypt Forest ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Open Ground ◽  
Fire Front ◽  
Bird Fauna ◽  
Fire Flame

A major wildfire burned 228 400 ha of forest in East Gippsland (Victoria, Australia) in February and March 1983, including Cooaggalah forest block where flora and fauna studies had just commenced. Bird abundance was assessed on 13 sites immediately before and after the fire, and annually for three years to 1986. The sites represented a range of habitats including rainforest, heaths and eucalypt forest, all of which burned. Total bird abundance was reduced to 60% of initial levels by the fire, but recovered within three years. These changes differed significantly between habitats. Initial decreases were greatest and subsequent recovery least in heaths where most above-ground vegetation had been killed. Post-fire increases were greatest in rainforest and on granite ridges, and in each case bird abundance rose to levels substantially higher than before fire. Some changes may have involved recovery from drought as well as fire. Changes over time were highly significant for many groups of birds (e.g., honeyeaters), while others showed little change (e.g., bark-foragers and insectivores that inhabit dense understorey or damp ground below shrubs). Honeyeaters and seed-eaters suffered the greatest initial declines, and some species in these groups were slow to recover (e.g., New Holland and Crescent Honeyeaters and Beautiful Firetail). Some species that feed from open ground increased quickly to levels greater than before fire (Flame and Scarlet Robins, Buff-rumped Thornbill and Superb Fairy-wren), but all except the latter then declined as shrubs regenerated. The main loss of birds immediately after the fire was of highly mobile species, and the composition of the remaining bird fauna appeared to depend on resource availability rather than the capacity of species to survive the fire front. Initial responses of species to fire were poor predictors of their responses after three years. Hence, the effects of fire should be considered in terms of habitat changes over several years. Many forest types including rainforest can provide continuing habitat even when they burn, but populations of mobile birds such as honeyeaters depend on access to alternative habitats on a broad regional scale.

scholarly journals Relationship between Aboveground Biomass and Percent Cover of Ground Vegetation in Canadian Boreal Plain Riparian Forests

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. MacDonald ◽  
Janice M. Burke ◽  
Han Y.H. Chen ◽  
Ellie E. Prepas
Keyword(s):  
Aboveground Biomass ◽  
Riparian Forests ◽  
Ground Vegetation ◽  
Percent Cover

Modeling trade-offs between fire threat reduction and late-seral forest structure

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 2562-2574 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E Calkin ◽  
Susan Stevens Hummel ◽  
James K Agee
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Forest Dynamics ◽  
Forest Resource ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Forest Reserve ◽  
Silvicultural Treatments ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Fire Threat ◽  
Landscape Level

Evaluating the effects of managing for one forest resource in terms of associated impacts on other resources is not easy. Yet methods to identify potential trade-offs among forest resources are necessary to inform people about the implications of management options on public land. This paper uses a case study from a forest reserve in the northwestern United States to quantify trade-offs between fire threat (FT) and late-seral forest (LSF) structure at stand and landscape levels. Simulation of forest dynamics was done with and without silvicultural treatments. A landscape optimization algorithm maximized FT reduction subject to constraints on amount of LSF structure and total area treated. Results suggest that compatibility between the two objectives is possible at the landscape level when LSF structure is about 45% or less of the total reserve area. Conflict can exist between them at the stand level and when more area is required to be in LSF structure in the reserve landscape.

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